France to face USMNT in World Cup warmup

The U.S. Men’s National Team will be active next summer, but only in friendly matches.

The French Football Federation announced that Les Blues will play a series of friendly matches in the run up to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, with the final warm-up match against the USMNT in Lyon on June 9.

France will also play friendlies against Colombia and Russia before confirming its 23-man World Cup roster, followed by a friendly against Italy and then the match against the U.S. Les Blues has Peru, Australia and Denmark in it’s group, so it’s unclear why exactly they’ve scheduled the USMNT as a final tune-up, but it should be a great test for what will likely be a young U.S. side against a World Cup squad.

With the CONCACAF Nations League coming, this may be one of the few chances for the U.S. to test itself against a European power, so hopefully the USMNT players will be able to learn more about themselves and see the level they need to reach in this friendly, before beginning their summer vacations or heading back to their Major League Soccer clubs.